Hi there!! I have lots of questions as I embark on this journey! Here are a couple to start--
What % dark chocolate are you suppose to eat?
AND
I made a pitcher of green tea and added splenda is that ok or are we encouraged to drink it plain, that is NO added sweetner, how about adding fruit? I am NOT a tea drinker, I need to spice it up a bit.

Also, I just bought the newest SuperFoods book, would you recommend any of the older ones or should I just stick with this one?

Thanks in advance. . .

It's ok to drink green tea sweetened or flavored if your personal diet plan allows sweeteners, artificial or natural. The green tea will still retain the antioxidants despite the additions. However, I'm pretty sure that I've rad that green tea can lose antioxidants and the flavor can change if it sits too long, so a cup of freshly brewed green tea is usually best. I usually drink mine plain, but if I do sweeten tea then I use a little bit of buckwheat honey which is also high in antioxidants.

I definitely recommend the first SuperFoods book! The second one is pretty redundant - it has some good recipes, but I checked the book out of the library and never bought it.

From what I've read about the benefits of dark chocolate, you should eat one that has at least 70% cocoa solids and the least amount of sugar that you can find (9 grams of sugar per serving in the lowest I've found.)

In regards to the green tea, I don't think you can classify splenda or any other artificial sweetener as a whole food, but I'm sure we all have at least one non-whole food item that we use occasionally. Mine in low cal mayo, I use so little I don't see it as a problem. I personally am wary of artificial sweeteners, so I don't use them, but if you feel okay about it then go for it. We have to decide what we personally can and cannot live without.

I'm reading the book right now - mostly finished, just following up on the specific food chapters that appeal to me. I had the same question about black tea, which I like to drink iced. I'd feel hypocrytic putting an artifical sweetener in it from the WF perspective, tho that's what I've done for the last 20 years. I'd like to drink more, but not the chemicals. My weight doesn't allow me to drink the real sugar stuff like crazy, so I'm probably limited to one real one a day. What's stevia, is that real or chemical? And I think honey has just never appealed to me. But how excited I was to see that black iced tea can be just as good for me as green!

It's an herb from the sunflower family. Some people find it bitter other people love it. One word of caution though, if you use it start out with really small amounts, it's a lot sweeter then other sweeteners.

I love stevia and have been using it for years. Trader Joes sells their own powdered form of it and I think it is delicious.

Question on Cocoa. I have some Hershey 100% cosoa unsweetened powder and have been steaming it in my milk with my coffee.
Any other used for it without sweetening it?

I do the same thing! Except I'm drinking my coffee/milk cold, it's hot already. Cinnamon in it too.

Some recipes put it in chili. I make a bean & veggie (lots of veggies) "chili" and I added, I think, 1 tsp last time (for about 3 generous & bean/veggie dense servings). I didn't notice any flavor effect, although it might be one of those things that just adds to the "complexity" of the flavor. I will probably keeping increasing it bit and experiment. But in any event, it seems like a way to add in some chocolate anti-oxidants without the extra fat and sugar. I'm putting cinnamon the chili too, but even 1/4t is noticeable in the size recipe I make. I think it's just right, but you might want to try even less to see how it goes.

One time while staying at a Westin hotel, I tried Revolution brand tea from their little tea/coffee holder and found it to be great! The infuser is just awesome. Now I buy it at Lowes Foods. Anyways, they just introduced an Orange Chocolate Green Tea... I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure I'm going to like this one!

revolutiontea.com

I "sweeten" my tea with skim milk. I really found that I like my tea to be "creamy", similar to teh way that I drink coffee.

I also woudl avoid artificial sweetenrs, stevia or honey or agavae are good subs